This weekend I used two different pastoral prayers for the weekend. One for the traditional service and the other for the contemporary service. Let me know what you think, is this appropriate? Guidance or improvement on these prayers? Thanks!
I have shared all of the prayers that I have written for worship via Google Docs under Resources here at this site. Please feel free to use and adapt to your own context.
Enjoy!
https://thoughtsofresurrection.wordpress.com/resources/
Pastoral Prayer – Traditional Service
We love you Lord and we gather today to praise and worship you. Through the truth that comes from you, we know that we shall be truly free. We look to find freedom in you in this life and in the life to come. O God, as we look to your freedom, we know that there are things that we have done or left undone that continue to hold us in bondage. We take time in silence to confess those things to you now.
(silent confession)
Free us from all of these things which we have confessed, empower us to live to worship you and enjoy you forever. Thank you for the families in which we live. Our biological family, our work family, our school family, and our Christian family. Today we specifically pray for
- “our fathers, who have given us life and love, that we may show them respect and love.
- fathers who have lost a child through death, that their faith may give them hope, and their family and friends support and console them.
- men, though without children of their own, who like fathers have nurtured and cared for us.
- fathers, who have been unable to be a source of strength, who have not responded to their children and have not sustained their families.
God our Father, in your wisdom and love you made all things. Bless these men, that they may be strengthened as Christian fathers. Let the example of their faith and love shine forth. Grant that we, their sons and daughters, may honor them always with a spirit of profound respect. Grant this through Christ our Lord”, (Adapted from page 441 of The United Methodist Book of Worship, The United Methodist Publishing House. Nashville: 1992.)
who taught us to pray together saying:
Lord’s Prayer
Pastoral Prayer – Contemporary Service
O God of all generations, we bring all that we have and all that we are to you. O God, we know that you have been at work for good through our ancestors and continue to work through us. But God we confess that our lives are a mess. We confess to you the junk in our lives that separates us from you. We lay before you the things that we have done or have not done this week that we know is against your will. In this silence, heal us.
(Silent confession)
Thank you God for clearing the junk out of our life and releasing us to live free. We pray for our fathers or for those who have been fathers to us. Give them strength to follow your dream for their lives. We pray for your grace to fill us so that we can live in right relationship with all fathers everywhere. As you have blessed us, send us to be a blessing. We pray in the name and in the power of Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying…
Lord’s Prayer
Rev. Andrew Conard 